Low vitamin D level, higher corona risk? Expert with new recommendation

Vitamin D strengthens our immune system and is vital for the body.

The “sun hormone” also seems to play an important role with regard to Covid-19.

• The human body produces

  vitamin D

  independently by converting the sun's rays through the skin.

  However, foods such as tuna also contain vitamin D - but humans only cover a small part of their vitamin D requirements through food.

• Vitamin D

  is important

  for many metabolic processes in the body, above all it ensures that calcium from food can be well absorbed and built into the bones, thus reducing the risk of osteoporosis *.

• Low vitamin D levels were measured

  not only in osteoporosis patients, but

  also in Covid 19 patients

  : Professor Martin Smollich, a specialist pharmacist for clinical pharmacy, gives an assessment of the causes behind this.

Update from November 16, 2020

: A lack of vitamin D in the body can promote infections, which is why a vitamin D deficiency should be treated.

What role does vitamin D play with regard to coronavirus infection?

Experts disagree.

But initial studies show:

.

The big catch in the study, however, is that the majority of the clinical data are practically meaningless, "because either they were not adjusted for potential confounding factors or the vitamin D level was recorded for the first time at the time of hospital admission," quoted the Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung DAZ) Professor Martin Smollich, specialist pharmacist for clinical pharmacy and head of the pharmaconutrition working group at the Institute for Nutritional Medicine at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein.

Smollich assumes a so-called reverse causality: Vitamin D deficiency as a consequence of Covid-19 and not as a cause.

A vitamin D deficiency occurred above average in diseases and living conditions that increase the risk of Covid 19 infection, such as old age, obesity or diabetes.

According to Smollich, prophylactic intake of vitamin D is generally not harmful, but he warns against too high a dosage.

According

to the DAZ,

indications have shown that an

Study establishes link between vitamin D deficiency and severe Covid-19

Article from July 16, 2020

:

face and arms in the sun for ten to twenty minutes a day and the body will synthesize enough

through the skin

: These or similar recommendations are making the rounds.

But it is not that simple after all: With age, vitamin D production decreases and the individual metabolism, which varies greatly, does not allow for standardized recommendations.

But it has been scientifically proven that vitamin D is involved in innumerable processes in the body.

The substance ensures

, as vitamin D supports the coordination ability and the speed required for the reflexes.

The University of Hohenheim has now published a study that establishes a connection between

and a severe course of

.

Also read

Does vitamin D deficiency favor severe Covid-19 diseases?

“There is ample evidence that various non-communicable diseases (high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome) are associated with low

plasma levels.

These comorbidities, together with the often accompanying vitamin D deficiency, increase the risk of severe

events, "summarizes the portal dw.de.

, said Martin Fassnacht, head of endocrinology at the University Hospital of Würzburg. so the investigator observed only that a vitamin D deficiency favors pre-existing conditions, the heavy Covid-19 curves can have the effect, however, It has not yet been clearly proven that a vitamin D deficiency itself worsens the course of Covid 19 *.

In addition, too many factors were not taken into account in the observational study by the University of Hohenheim, such as people's lifestyle, smoking and eating habits, job or hobbies (someone who likes to be out in the mountains usually has a much higher vitamin D-Spiegel as a serial junkie).

According to the study by the University of Hohenheim, if a

suspected,

the

status should be checked and a possible deficit corrected quickly.

This cannot have negative effects, but a positive effect has not (yet) been proven.

"There are studies going on to check whether vitamin D helps with a Covid-19 infection, but I personally don't believe that this is really the case," dw.de quotes the endocrinologist Fassnacht.

However, this does not rule out the fact that there are people who benefit from supplementation.

: “My belief that the vitamin will help anywhere is very low.

But of course I can be wrong. ”

*

For release

In the video: Vitamin D - the biggest misconceptions